The Select World at the AQHA World – What’s in Store?
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By Barbara Aitken Jenkins
For the past 18 years, AQHA Select competitors have qualified for the largest, single-breed World Championship show solely designated for exhibitors age 50 and over. For the first 16 years, the AQHA Select World Championship Show was hosted in Amarillo, Texas. AQHA announced in 2019 that the show would relocate to Fort Worth for 2020. However, before the show could find its home in Cowtown, COVID-19 hit the country. Then, AQHA announced that the Select World was postponed due to the pandemic. This left exhibitors wondering if they would ever experience the feeling of riding in a championship arena again.
Hope was restored when AQHA made it possible for the Select division to join Open and Amateur divisions in November at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. The 2020 AQHA World Championship Show hosted the Open, Amateur, Select, and Level 1 Championships. In addition, the 2020 event was a non-qualifying show, resulting in a large number of exhibitors in a variety of divisions. AQHA announced earlier this year that the 2021 event will follow suit, and all of the same divisions will once again compete together in Oklahoma City in November.
The industry is thankful to be able to continue showing in a post-COVID-19 shutdown world. But, showing during such an unprecedented time in history brings with it both pros and cons when there are numerous large divisions together–at one time, in one place–for a championship-level event.
We chatted with three, top-level, Select riders to discuss their opinions about the Select World Championship Show running concurrently with the AQHA World Championship Show.
Susan Roberts’ name is synonymous with Select Western Pleasure. The multiple World Champion was disappointed when AQHA postponed the Select World last year. “2020 had a lot of cancellations, so we didn’t show as much. I was thinking that AQHA had just decided to do away with the Select World Show when they postponed it last summer. It was a little discouraging. Then, all of a sudden, we found out that the Select World was going to be with the Amateur and Open World in November. I was excited.”
